Long-Term Maintenance, or How to (Mis-)Manage Embedded Systems for 10+ Years

The technical side of how to build embedded Linux systems solved by now: Take the kernel, a build system, add some patches, integrate your application and you’re done!

In reality though, most of the embedded systems we build are connected to the Internet and run most of the same software as servers or desktops. Unlike these however, our systems are not regularly maintained an administrator and don’t run a standard distribution.

In this presentation, Marc Kleine-Budde will explain why apparently reasonable approaches to long-term maintenance fail and how to establish a sustainable workflow instead. By mainlining required features early, aligning to the upstream support cycles and having a predictable maintenance and testing schedule, it is easy to respond to the inevitable (security) problems quickly and with controlled risk.